The Senators found their scoring touch in the nick of time Friday night.

First, it was Zack Smith and then Mark Stone played the role of hero on what turned out to be a pretty special win.

Just when it looked like the Senators were going to be shutout, they served notice they wouldn’t be denied as Stone scored the winner with 6.5 seconds left in the third period to notch a thrilling 2-1 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Kings in front of 15,683 at the Canadian Tire Centre.

While Kings goalie Jeff Zatkoff started the game and made 18 stops before he left the contest, Peter Budaj came on in relief and wasn’t able to shut the door for Los Angeles. Stone scored from the doorstep when he pushed home a loose puck to end an eight-game drought while Craig Anderson made 32 stops for the win.

“It’s huge. We pressed really hard in the third period,” said Stone, who hadn’t scored since Oct. 18 against Arizona. “It was a long time coming. At the end of the day we know our big guys have to get going and we’re trying to work out funks and we were able to get some good goals here.”

Earlier, Smith scored his third of the year, and his first in nine games, to tie it up with 3:54 to go by batting a puck out of the air by Budaj and that led to the heroics. Kings coach Darryl Sutter challenged for goaltender interference by Stone, but that call was upheld by the NHL’s war room.

“That’s an important one for us to know that we can stick around all game,” Smith said. “If you have to wait until the last couple of minutes to score, then so be it.

“It’s a big (goal). They seem to be hard to come by for us. We’re getting chances and just not finishing. Those are always good for confidence. You could see how excited both (Stone and Smith) were.”

Smith said he’s an old baseball player.

“I used to play ball,” Smith said. “My teammates can attest I wasn’t very good at batting, I was pretty good at third base, but I think I redeemed myself with that one.”

No kidding, and the timing was perfect.

“You just have to keep the faith,” Anderson said when asked if he was wondering if he’d get any offensive support. “You just don’t know when the offence will come. We started to get momentum in the third and it was just a matter of time. The guys were playing hard and we’re keeping things out of our end really well and giving ourselves opportunity.

“We’re playing so well defensively we’re allowing ourselves to be there at the end.”

The power play leaves a lot to be desired and has produced only one goal in the past eight games and went 0-for-3 on this night. The Senators had a 5-on-3 for 22 seconds in the second and while they had chances on Zatkoff they weren’t able to score.

“I think I’ll go light some candles at church,” said Boucher with a smile.

Anderson was a big reason the Senators were only trailing 1-0 after 40 minutes. He made a huge stop on Anze Kopitar on a shorthanded breakaway during the 5-on-3. Kopitar left in the third with an undisclosed injury.

Only 56 seconds into the second, King opened the scoring when he tipped a Jeff Carter backhander that beat Anderson through a crowd. It’s the ninth time in 14 games this season the Senators have allowed the opponent to open the scoring and everybody is well aware what a nasty habit that was for this team last season.

The Senators struggled to even get scoring chances in the first and were outshot 14-8 by the Kings. Ottawa had a couple of opportunities on Zatkoff, who made a big stop on Ryan midway through the period, but there weren’t many and the Senators relied on Anderson to shut the door to keep it from getting out of control.

Coming off a 4-1 loss 24 hours earlier in Montreal, the Kings were supposed to be the tired team but they certainly didn’t look that way. The Senators didn’t have the puck a whole lot and they put plenty of pressure on Anderson.

The Senators hope this win can be a boost of confidence.

“It’s a big confidence booster for us. We’ve come back in a couple of games this year and if you look at last year we gave up that goal right away in the third period and to put us out of it. We stuck with it and we pushed the pace,” Stone said.

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